Verizon fought the FCC tooth and nail over requirement that LTE phones be unlocked

Verizon fought the FCC tooth and nail over requirement that LTE phones be unlocked

People have been surprised to find that Verizon iPhones 5 are unlocked by default, allowing them to be used on other carriers out of the box, due to the rules surrounding spectrum that Verizon purchased a few years ago, which they are now using to operate their LTE service.

Turns out, Verizon was bitterly angry over this requirement at the time, calling it ‘arbitrary’ and ‘capricious’ and suing the FCC over it. They dropped the lawsuit when it became apparent they were going to lose. Today, Verizon has very little at all to say about it.

As others have pointed out, we have Google to thank for getting those rules there in the first place. No thanks to Apple for helping to perpetuate the consumer-hostile system of contracts and locked phones for so many years.